Closed for nearly a decade, family demolishes former hub of a community

Tuesday

Sep 17, 2013 at 12:01 AM

PETERSBURG - Andrews Grocery has been closed for a little over a decade, but the memories of the store are still alive and its impact on the community is undeniable to its owners and those who frequented the store. Demolition began Monday on the former

PETERSBURG - Andrews Grocery has been closed for a little over a decade, but the memories of the store are still alive and its impact on the community is undeniable to its owners and those who frequented the store.

Demolition began Monday on the former hub of the community.

"Everybody here was extended family," Kathleen Murphy said. She ran the store with her father from around 1993 to when it closed in 2002, after her father had a stroke. She said she knows of at least one married couple that met at the store. Others who frequented the store said they felt obligated to bring new boyfriends to the store to make sure that William Andrews gave his approval.

Patrons didn't necessarily have to be going there to buy something; many stopped by the store just to visit.

Murphy said that her mother and father - Eva and William Andrews - bought the business in 1968 from A.D. Landram.

"My mother had done work for Mrs. Landram," Murphy said. When it came time for the Landrams to sell the business and retire, as they had no children of their own, they sold it to Murphy's parents.

"They had no business background. My daddy had worked for Titmus Optical and when they walked into the business, he was 58 years old and momma was right behind him at 57 years old," Murphy said. "He left Titmus and said, 'This is what I'm going to pursue.' "

Murphy said the Landrams allowed her parents to buy the business by making payments on it. When her father went to the attorney's office to complete the paperwork on the sale, the attorney called Mr. Landram and asked, "Are you sure you want to do that?"

Despite the misgivings of the attorney, the sale was completed and the Andrewses took over the business in 1968, just as Kathleen was beginning her first year at Virginia State College, now Virginia State University. All through college, she helped her parents with the store, along with her two sisters.

During that time, the majority of the store's clients were white, according to Murphy. Even as the neighborhood around the store changed and the white families moved, they would still come to shop at the store on Saturdays.

"They would come to get things that they couldn't get other places," she said. Some of those items included brooms, bologna, fresh bread and fresh chicken.

Murphy said that on a typical day, the store would have standing room only at 7 a.m.

"We were so busy one person would break for lunch and the other two would hurry up and ... watch the store," she said. "We were blessed that the community allowed us to flourish here. Who did not stop by here at least once a day?"

"Daddy had the best prices on cigarettes at the time," Willa Etta Andrews Townes said. "He knew how to bring them in."

While their father knew how to bring customers in, he also knew there were some products he wouldn't carry - alcohol being at the top of the list; after that, lottery tickets. At the time her father bought the store, one of the few problems in the area was "the gentlemen that would stand on the corner."

Her father had a certain way of dealing with these men that would loiter on the corner.

"Initially, it was drinking that was the problem. You couldn't get them out of the store," Murphy said. "They wanted attention. It affected everything we did."

Murphy said the men who would hang out on the corner would get a verbal warning from her father to go hang out elsewhere. More than that though, he would encourage them to find something better to do. Andrews would ask the loiterers what they were doing with their lives or what they intended to do once they were retirement age and couldn't collect Social Security.

Others were more than welcome to come and hang out in the store. William Andrews kept photos of many of his patrons and their families at the store. According to some accounts, there were more photos of people at the store than family members even had.

"He'd staple them to cardboard and it was in the store," Murphy said.

Murphy and her sister say that the store was more than just a way for their parents to support the family. It was what provided a better life for at least two generations. The sisters say they were able to attend college and be commissioned into the Army - each eventually achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel - and it has allowed the succeeding generation to have a strong start.

"Because of the store, that put us in a position that we could do that," Townes said.

Even though the store has been closed for more than 10 years, it was only earlier this month that Murphy finally terminated electric service to the building.

"It was in my daddy's name and every time I would call Dominion Virginia Power to cancel it I would choke up," she said. "It's very emotional."

Murphy said that immediate plans for the property are to demolish the former store and erect a simple memorial to her parents.

"Then down the road, my son plans to rebuild something smart here," Murphy said. She said it probably won't be a grocery store, as people go to larger retailers for those items now. But she said it may be some type of retail. "He's looking at something retail or business or office. Something to lift up this area."

- F.M. Wiggins may be reached at 732-3456, ext. 3254 or fwiggins@progress-index.com.

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